nearly all the profit in the oil business is in exploration and delivery. Refining tends to be a very low margin business, and retail overall barely breaks even in a good year. Hess' retail operation is profitable, mostly thanks to an energy plant in Bayonne, but not profitable enough to justify more investment.

Hess' stations are mostly company owned. Your local Hess station likely won't be closing, the retail business will be sold off.

I think most of what you're seeing right now in the U.S. is geographical in nature. Most refiners in the northeast are limited in their access to a variety of the types of crude oils that are out there. Some of the refineries were also designed to run the types of crude oils that are more expensive today as well - so even if they could buy cheap crude, they may not be able to process it. Not sure if most people understand that there are varying types of crude oil that range in how much they cost, how intensive they are to refine, and what yield of products you get per barrel.

This problem is only compounded for companies that derive all of their profits from refining, which I think Hess is an example of.

StrikitRich:All these companies getting out of the refining business can't be good for gasoline prices.

TFA didn't say they were getting out of refining. It said they were getting out of retail and marketing. This means the Hess, ITSELF, will not own any of their gas stations. They will still, presumably, let people pay a license fee to operate under the HESS banner.

Hell ExxonMobil did this a few years ago. "Production" can mean upstream production (Crude and Nat Gas) AND refining you know.

TFA didn't say they were getting out of refining. It said they were getting out of retail and marketing. This means the Hess, ITSELF, will not own any of their gas stations. They will still, presumably, let people pay a license fee to operate under the HESS banner.

TFA: Hess has already announced plans sell U.S. oil storage terminals and close a New Jersey refinery as it exits the volatile refining business

Fubegra:Isn't almost all of the profit squeezed out of a gallon of gas by the time it reaches the gas station's storage tanks?

Then again, it's odd how many oil companies are also spinning off their refining operations.

What's funny is that the Phillips 66 (downstream spin-off of ConocoPhillips) share price has gone up by 50% since they split, while ConocoPhillips stock has basically stagnated in the same time period.

some guy SC:TFA didn't say they were getting out of refining. It said they were getting out of retail and marketing. This means the Hess, ITSELF, will not own any of their gas stations. They will still, presumably, let people pay a license fee to operate under the HESS banner.

TFA: Hess has already announced plans sell U.S. oil storage terminals and close a New Jersey refinery as it exits the volatile refining business